


Singularity

by chocolatnoir



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Fight Me Bioware, Flirting, Fluff, Humor, I Can't Hear You Over My Headcanon, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2018-11-09 00:10:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11092812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolatnoir/pseuds/chocolatnoir
Summary: Theirs was a romance that took its own sweet time.





	1. Dirty Tricks And Superpowers

_Fucking batarian slavers. Scum of the universe_ , Leah cursed in her mind as she tilted her head back and looked towards the ceiling without really seeing it, teeth clenching.

It wasn’t the first time that slavers attacked them, assuming that going for a small group of scientists would consist in a few easy kills and some valuable equipment that they could loot and sell afterwards. What they hadn't been ready for, was the fact that groups like this, both Alliance and Council funded scientific researchers, had the forethought of sending a small peace keeping force just in case. And _just in case_ had proven right yet again. Those pieces of shit had gotten more than they had bargained for alright. Her team was lucky, but more importantly, armed and ready.

The whole thing made her mad. Not so much because they had dared to attack _them_ specifically, but because there were defenceless people out there who were completely vulnerable to those assholes. But the Council had other priorities, and they didn’t seem to like humans all that much. Every time someone so much started complaining about the lack of safety, they would throw back the ‘you’re the ones that decided to go near the _Terminus Systems_ ’, as if that could justify their lack of decent protection. More like the opposite. Either way, that’s where the unstudied Prothean sites _were_. Where the hell were they supposed to dig for new artefacts?

This time the attack had been carried out by the biggest group of slavers they had come across so far, and though her team had been able to kill some and drive the others away (with the timely help from a small Alliance team that had been passing by), it hadn’t been without its scrapes and wounds.

Silva had gotten a bullet on the leg right in the beginning of the attack, and was currently being attended by the medics.

And Leah was waiting her turn. Reason why she was so cranky. She wasn’t even in a bad mood strictly because she was in pain, she was in a bad mood because she had gotten hurt in the first place. All because of a rookie mistake.

Movement near the bed she was currently sitting on caught her eye. She turned her head to meet the back of, she assumed by his clothing, a doctor. Not Dr. Walker however, or his trainee, since she didn’t recognise him. Probably someone from the team that had helped them out.

He seemed to be searching for something in vain on the drawers. She almost sighed. Damn Walker and his particular brand of stubbornness.

“Second drawer on the left, probably,” she offered.

Her group had been together for long enough time that they knew each other’s idiosyncrasies well enough, and one of Dr. Walker’s was that he loathed organising his tiny med-bay as per regulation, preferring to, in his words, do his thing.

But doing _his thing_ proved confusing when other people needed to get something from the med-bay and nothing was where it was supposed to be. Which was what was happening to the unknown doctor.

The man paused his searching. Brilliant green eyes met hers over his shoulder for a moment, before he turned again and crouched down. He opened the drawer that she had mentioned and paused before grabbing the extra medi-gel Dr. Walker kept in there.  
Then he straightened up and turned towards her fully.

 _Well, well, well_. Eyecandy. Nice. Tan skin that made green eyes pop out, a lovely nose, dark short hair peppered with grey, and a bone structure to die for. _Very_ nice.

He raised an eyebrow, “Thank you. Do you read minds?”

Apparently he didn’t even just look good, but also _sounded_ good. What a voice. It made him sound older than he looked, but she had no complaints.

“No. But I totally see the future,” she answered without missing a beat. She appreciated a good looking man as much as the next person, but she wasn’t the starstruck type.

He paused and sent her a strange look. She’d been expecting that, but not him going along with her bullshit, “Oh? What do you see then?” He asked with a small quirk of his lips.

Oh, trick question! She almost said something outrageously flirty, the opening was _right there_ , but chose to go another way instead, “That you’re going to cause me pain, probably.”

His eyes sharpened on her, “That’s… _interesting_." His tone was _so dry_. Leah had to admit that she was amused. "Why?”

“Dislocated shoulder,” she answered, pointing towards her left shoulder and blinking her eyes innocently, trying her best not to smirk.

He chuckled, “Ah. I see.” He bowed his head in her direction, “I’ll be right back then, _Prophet_.” Oh, sarcasm! “Wouldn’t want you to be wrong.” And with _that_ , he turned around and left the room.

Left alone once again, Leah smothered an amused snort. What a jerk. She kinda liked him.

 

* * *

 

It didn’t take him long to come back, and he hadn’t lost any of his snark, “So, _Prophet_. What happened exactly?”

The ten million credits question. She started to shrug, but stopped herself in time as pain made itself known rather sharply. _Ouch_. “Stuff,” she answered nonchalantly, watching as he grabbed a datapad.

“Specific,” he commented sarcastically. Her lips twitched again. “Name?” he asked as he scrolled down the duty roster on the datapad. Dr. Walker already knew everyone in their team so he didn’t need to check for their information, but since this doctor didn’t, he had to first make sure his patient had no diseases or other specifications worth of note, like pre-existing conditions or allergies, that kind of thing.

“Ryder, Leah. Corporal.”

Strangely, he sent her a curious at that, but whatever he was thinking, he kept to himself. He looked over her health records for a moment more before nodding. Then he put the datapad down and turned towards her once again, firing up his omni tool and starting to scan her. Pretty basic stuff so far. “So, want to elaborate on the ‘stuff’?” He asked lightly.

“Want? Not really.” She sighed, “It wasn’t really a batarian,” she managed to confess, looking annoyed at herself, “I miscalculated the power behind a biotic charge and ended up almost blowing myself up in the process. Fell badly and so: shoulder.”

She waited for a mocking comment, he seemed lively enough for that, but he surprised her by not even touching on the subject at all. “Alright. How is the amp? Any burn or static?” He asked, as he moved nearer and gestured for her to show him her neck. She brushed her shoulder-length hair out of the way as best as she could with one hand, so he could check it. Any movement sent sparks of pain from her shoulder, but she clenched her jaw and endured it.

“No. It got a little hot at the time, but I didn’t use any biotics after and it hasn’t bothered me,” she told him.

“Sounds good. I’m going to take it out anyway, and I’ll put it on again after I put your shoulder back in its socket.”

“Delightful,” Leah commented dryly.

“Hey, you foretold it,” he pointed out, amusement in his voice, as his fingers expertly removed the amp from the back of her neck. She made a face at the sensation, it always felt weird to remove it.

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she mumbled rather grouchily.

He chuckled softly, “It’ll be fine.”

Yeah, she’d bet. For _him_. She was very much in pain and he really was going to cause her even _more_ pain before she’d feel better. That’s what happened with dislocated shoulders after all. She had had to deal with her brother bitching about it a few years ago, when he had gotten hurt in Basic, so she knew all there was to know. Especially now, firsthand.

“Amp is still in good condition,” the doctor commented as he put it on a small tray on the table next to the bed. “When you fell, did you hit your head?”

She shook her head, “Not really.”

He must have had his doubts, because next thing he did was making her look at a light coming from his omni-tool. Up, down, left, right, the works. Only after that, did he focus on her shoulder again.

She was still wearing her armour, so he had to help her remove it, starting by her chest guard. There was a lot of cringing from her part and some curses under her breath, so she attempted to make small talk to distract herself from the pain, “So, who are you anyway? Where’s Dr. Walker?”

“Harry Carlyle. Passing by shuttle when we saw the attack. My team decided to help, so here I am, helping,” he offered, arranging the plates of her armour neatly on the table as he removed them. “Dr. Walker is tending to the head scientist, Dr. Silva?”

She nodded, “Appreciate it. How is Silva doing?”

“He's fine. Bullet went clean through. He was swearing up a storm about the attack though, my Commander is talking to him now.”

No wonder. Silva was a bit paranoid about the excavation team's safety, but stuff like what had happened today gave him reason to be so. He had been asking the Council for more people on Leah’s force, aware of the dangers they faced and how small their team really was, but nothing seemed to come out of it. Now that _he_ had been hurt, he was probably _pissed_.

A new voice sounded from the door, as familiar as it was unexpected, “Hey Carlyle-” The man cut himself off, and she raised her head and met his eyes just as he spoke again, clearly surprised, “…Leah?”

_Well, this is weird._

She gaped, eyes widening, “…dad?” Had the good doctor injected her with an hallucinogenic? Because her dad, clad in his N7 armour, was standing in the med-bay of her workplace and that was pretty damn surreal. Wasn't he supposed to be on the Citadel? “What the- What are you doing here?” Secret mission time, or something?

His expression of surprise morphed into a mighty frown as he looked at her from head to toe, stepping further into the room. “I didn’t know you had switched excavations,” he ignored her question, before approaching the bed, “You’re hurt?”

She gulped, blinking at her father’s face. He was really here, huh. “Yeah, a bit. Dislocated shoulder.”

Her father’s sharp grey eyes, so much like hers, moved to the medic currently taking off one of her arm guards, “Carlyle?”

“Just as she said, sir. Should be an easy fix.” Yeah, she disagreed with that bit. Then again Scott was always complaining that she was a drama queen when she was in pain. Probably true. “Nothing to worry about as long as she’s careful in the next couple of days.”

Then her father gave her a look and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes, “What! I’m not going to run around jumping while I’m in pain.”

“You said it, not me,” he shot back with a small smile, which only made her throw him a dirty look. Her father had, surprisingly, a sneaky sense of humour, but it was more buried than some of the Prothean artefacts that she was usually around. Then his expression became serious again as he looked towards the work of the medic that she could only assume was part of his team. “How many times has the excavation team been attacked?”

She sighed, “A few times. Usually just a few stragglers that are attracted by the shiny equipment. Today was the worse we’ve had so far.”

He pursed his lips, “Dr. Silva said you’ve contacted the Council about this?”

“Yeah, he has talked to them a bunch of times. But you know how it is: ‘Attican Traverse is too close to the Terminus Systems blah blah’, ‘you’re practically asking for it blah blah’, ‘tell no one but we really hate humans blah blah and blah’,” she finished while rolling her eyes with a dismissive gesture of her free hand.

Doctor Carlyle scoffed with amusement before throwing a look at her father, “Sounds like them alright.” Her chest, shoulder and arm plates were finally fully off and she was left in her skintight undersuit from the waist up, as his long fingers carefully prodded here and there around her shoulder, no doubt checking her bones. His touch was cautious and gentle, but it hurt like hell all the same.

Her father nodded, looking at her for another moment, before declaring, “I’ll be back in a moment, alright?” Then he straightened up and, after a brief pause, he stretched his arm and brought his hand towards her face, gently tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear, "I'm glad you're alright." It was perhaps a bit awkward from him, he wasn't all that expressive when it came to feelings, not like mom was, but it was a sweet gesture nonetheless and she sent him a warm smile.

Of course, showing how much he was his son's father, he had to ruin it the next moment. As he turned and left the med-bay, he patted the doctor’s shoulder as he passed by, saying, “Don’t let my daughter bully you too much.”

She gaped at him, “Hey!” The guy was the one who was going to cause _her_ pain!

Carlyle chuckled a little as her father disappeared outside of the med-bay, but quickly became more professional once again, “I’m going to set your bone now. Ready for this?”

She took her eyes away from where her father had disappeared to, and made a face, “I assume that’s a rhetoric question.”

“Ha. I suppose.” He sent her a curious look though, “So _you’re_ the daughter that once stole his jet pack and made the whole C-Sec run after you on the Citadel for a whole _hour_ , as you jumped around between levels when you were 13 years old?”

Oh _hell_.

Leah groaned in mortification, but before she could curse her father for telling anyone about her rebellious adventures, his hands tightened on her shoulder and with a sharp movement, he set her shoulder back on it’s socket.

“Ow, _fuck_! Son of a bitch!” She hissed at the sharp but blessedly short-lived pain. The jerk had waited until she was distracted to do it. She exhaled and after opening her eyes, she glared at him, “Dirty tricks, Doctor Carlyle? Not. Cool.”

He sent her an unrepentant smile - handsome jerk, dammit - and scanned her shoulder again, “I’m a doctor. No tricks are dirty.”

Leah scoffed, “I beg to differ,” she murmured.

“Alright, try to move it, _slowly_ ,” he ordered, attention on his omni-tool readings again.

As she did, she found only remnants of the acute pain of before. “Doesn’t hurt as much, still pretty sore though.”

He nodded, “That's normal. You should put an ice pack on it for a while, it’ll help with the soreness," he advised. "One regulation pain med a day, only if necessary. No sharp arm movements in the next week so the tendons and the muscles can heal naturally. And be careful because shoulders that have been dislocated once have more tendency to dislocate again.” He had grabbed the datapad again and was writing on it as he spoke, no doubt updating her file. Doctors had some ungodly superpowers to be able to speak and write at the same time.

She took his advice seriously, filling all the information in her brain. She sure as hell didn’t want to experience pain like that ever again, thank you very much, especially because it had been her own damn fault. Dirty tricks or not, Dr. Carlyle had done his job and had helped her, and she was grateful for that.

“Will do Doc, thanks,” she said before shooting him an narrowed-eyed glance, “Now explain how the hell you know about the jet pack thing.”

The smile on his face was quick to reappear, “Your dad told the team. It was a roundabout way of explaining something or other, but for some reason it stayed it me.”

She groaned once again and hid her face behind her hands. Not shame that she had done it, it had been super fun, but why was her dad of all people telling his team about that story? It was kind of embarrassing. Scott was going to laugh his head off when she told him.

“Aw, now you get shy?” The Doctor’s voice was amused and warm and when she peeked at him from between her fingers, his smile was just as delighted. He really was too handsome for his own good…or hers. _Anyway._

She removed her hands from her face with a huff though she knew her cheeks were a bit red. _Dammit dad_. “I’m not liking you right now, _Harry Carlyle_.”

His smile didn’t disappear, though he moved his eyes towards his datapad once again, “A pity. I really liked that story, _Leah Ryder_. You sounded fun, lots of spunk. Though I admit it was a bit odd to imagine Commander Ryder with a little spitfire for a daughter.”

“I certainly would like to spit fire right now,” she stated stubbornly, staring at the med-bay's entrance. Her dad would come back at any moment, and when he did, they were going to have _words_.

“Now, don’t you go just hoarding super powers. You’re already a Prophet _and_ a biotic. Spitting fire seems a tad overkill at this point.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. There was a smile growing on her face unbidden, and she didn't fight it this time. Leah turned her amused eyes towards him, “Harry, my man,” she started, sending him a cheeky smile, “Like you mentioned, I stole an N7’s jet pack and jumped around the Citadel to my heart’s content for an hour without getting caught by C-Sec when I was _13_. _I do what I want_.”

His laugh was warm and she probably enjoyed it more than she should. Then he threw her a cheeky smile of his own, “Fair enough. Taking into account the state of your shoulder, perhaps you’re not that good of a Prophet anyway.”

Damn him for turning her words against her and making her laugh.

He was a bit of a jerk, but he was her kind of jerk.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I said I was cooking something with my Ryder and Harry after that little fic I posted before, and here it is! :3
> 
> For the record, I don't really have this planned out, so I'm just going to post it as I write, which will no doubt mean that updates won't be frequent - sorry!  
> I already have a few other things written, but they're pretty scattered and I'm still deciding a few things. I don't want to lose myself in details as I would prefer to keep this fic light and easy ;)
> 
> It will consist in a few moment in time, starting, as you could tell, in the Milky Way, and going all the way forward to Andromeda and the game's story. Doubt it'll have much of a plot besides 'so fluffy I'm gonna die!', 'snark and even more snark', and 'Ryder being Ryder' XD  
> Also, I don't know a damn thing about military, and even less about medical related stuff and being a doctor...so bear with me as I say some possibly outrageous things XD
> 
> Hope you enjoy! :)


	2. Binding Friendship Deal

Quite some time passed before she ever crossed paths with Dr. Harry Carlyle again. By then, the memory of the handsome and smartass doctor that had snarked back at her so amusingly, was a mere whisper of a self indulgent thought in Leah’s mind. But he didn't remain that way for long.  
  
“So, how is she, really?” Scott asked her one afternoon, expression uncommonly serious.  
  
They were both sitting on the balcony of their favourite cafe in the Citadel. Her brother had just came back from his post on the Mass Relay near Arcturus Station for a shore leave of one week.  
  
Leah rested her elbows on the table and massaged her brow before sighing and shrugging a bit helplessly, “She looks fine at first glance, but it’s the little things, you know?” She met Scott’s eyes, blue like their mother, “I catch her looking at me sometimes and she almost looks like she’s going to cry but then she smiles and leaves the room to do something or other. Hell, she’s been asking if we have _someone special_. She’s never asked that before. It’s like she’s worried, and I mean way more than usual.”  
  
Her brother grimaced and ran his hand through his dark short hair, “She’s convinced it’s bad then,” he concluded.  
  
“Yeah,” was Leah’s only answer.  
  
There was silence between them for a while, as both digested the information. Their mother had been sick for some time. The doctors thought it was some late secondary effects of all the accidental exposures to element zero that she had been subjected to early her career, specifically as a biomedical and cybernetic researcher of biotic implants. That both her and Scott were biotic was proof enough of those exposures, but it wasn’t just _that_ and they just weren’t sure how bad it was. Lately, their mom had been in and out of Huerta Memorial, doing exams after exams as doctors tried to pin down what was wrong exactly, in hopes of treating it.  
  
Leah, like Scott, had been granted a small shore leave, though a few days before her brother, and had been spending it with her mother. Her dad was currently busy with a project and since she was around, he had asked her to keep an eye on mom. Just in case.  
  
“And she isn’t letting you go with her to the medical appointments?” Scott asked again, tone still disbelieving.  
  
“Completely refusing my company,” she confirmed with a slight grimace. Mom was utterly not budging on that, which was especially weird since she’d always been open about things, not to mention one of the most easy-going people Leah knew. “Honestly, it’s freaking me out. I’m afraid of pushing her even more because I don’t know how she’ll react. If she’s already keeping the appointments secret…”  
  
“Means she isn’t willing to be upfront about the whole thing,” Scott finished for her. Then he grimaced as well, “We have to talk to her. Bottling it all up isn’t the way to go.”  
  
“She’s trying to protect us, Scott,” she pointed out gently.  
  
“Yeah, well, that’s bullshit,” he answered with a stubborn look. “And where the hell is dad anyway?”  
  
“Busy with his secret project,” Leah said, looking around them discreetly. The making of an AI was definitely not a conversation for non-Ryder ears. If the wrong person heard it, they would all be in trouble.  
  
“He has got to fix his priorities,” her brother said with an angry frown.  
  
Leah bit her lip with an internal sigh. Scott had always felt their father’s distance more keenly, and with her little brother, hurt turned quickly to anger. She understood his side, and agreed as well, but she wasn’t so quick to give in to animosity. The truth was, they both loved their father fiercely, and wanted his approval and attention more than anything, but Alec Ryder was one of the only N7’s in existence and as such, the galaxy sometimes had to come before his kids.  
  
It wasn’t fair, but it was life.  
  
“We’re here at the moment. Not for long, but it’s enough.” Leah hunched over the table slightly and lowered her voice, “He said something about…well, basically improving human beings. I think it’s just a theory at this point, but I got the feeling he has plans and that maybe they involve mom. In case things take a turn for the worse.” It hurt to say the last part.  
  
Scott’s face scrunched in confusion, “What? How, exactly?”  
  
Leah straighted up again, shrugging, “Beats me. Genius, remember?” Their father’s thought process was often out of their league, and forget straight answers when it came to stuff with feelings attached. Scott would sometimes joke that they’d both gotten the dumb genes from their parents, to which Leah would invariably answer with _speak for yourself, junior_.  
  
Truth was both of their parents were smart as hell, not that Leah and Scott were dumb by any measure of the word, but they didn’t feel nowhere near their parents’ level of brain power. It had been a bit disheartening growing up, but now that both of them had jobs to keep them occupied, it was a bit easier to deal with it. Well, Scott didn’t particularly like his job, but Leah was relatively content with hers.  
  
Her twin brother scoffed, “You’d think it would occur to geniuses that sharing is good.”  
  
Leah made a dismissive gesture with her hand, “You know how it is.” She looked at her omni-tool to check the time, “Shall we go? Mom should be leaving Huerta in 20 minutes and I said I’d meet her at the entrance.”  
  
“Lets.”

 

* * *

   
Since they had time, they took the scenic route, and Leah seized the opportunity to point out the new stores to her brother. Every time they came back home, something was different somehow, so it was a nice excuse to walk around and discover the differences.  
  
Not only that, but the Citadel was home to them. They’d been born here, and they had spent all their childhood on the station, growing up alongside humans and aliens alike.  
  
“I’m telling you, that was totally Barla Von!” Scott was saying, blue eyes narrowed, sneaking a peek behind him as they crossed the Presidium Commons.  
  
“You think every volus you see is Barla Von!” Leah argued with a huff.  
  
“Alright, maybe, but that volus looked shifty.”  
  
She rolled her eyes, “How can you even tell? They all look the same!”  
  
“There was something about him,” Scott insisted stubbornly.  
  
Leah groaned, “Of all the obsessions to have!”  
  
Her brother sent her a look, “Hey now, it’s not an obsession, alright? It’s just curiosity. And interest. Barla Von is infamous.”  
  
She raised an eyebrow at him, “Huh, huh. Next you’re gonna tell me you’ve chosen the ring already.”  
  
Scott looked confused, “The rin-” then he realised and it was his turn to groan, “Oh come _on_ , Leah!”  
  
Leah couldn’t help laughing. She’d missed him terribly. Holo-calls and emails only went so far. It was awesome to be with her twin again. Affectionately, she wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked, “It’s what it sounds like!”  
  
He shook his head but there was a smile on his face as he raised his arm and put it over her shoulders. He kissed her forehead, “Missed ya, sis. Even if you’re a pain in the ass.”  
  
She chuckled, “Right back atcha, on both things.”  
  
The light-hearted moment was short-lived however.  
  
"Oooh _shit_ ," her brother said suddenly, stopping abruptly, body tense. She snapped her head towards his face straight away, recognising the alarm in his voice.  
  
Following his line of sight, she saw what had caught his attention.  
  
"Oh shit," she repeated with alarm, letting her arm fall.  
  
A shuttle, with dark smoke coming out of it, was falling from the sky, adrift, and coming straight towards them.  
  
There were screams around them, as people noticed the incoming accident, but as most people fled the scene, they both remained.  
  
"Scott!" She called, voice raised in warning.  
  
"Got it!"  
  
Perhaps there was some truth to the idea that twins could read each others minds.  
  
Synchronised in a way that looked as if they had practised the move a hundred times before, both Ryders shone blue as they called forth their biotics.  
  
Scott had more control so he wrapped the crashing shuttle in a protective barrier and tried his best to manipulate the shuttle's speed in order to slow it down. Leah had more raw power so she threw a gigantic protective barrier around the place where she calculated that the shuttle was going to crash. Then she created a huge gravitational field, a bastardised singularity, in the middle of the space, in hopes of it catching the shuttle and helping it slow down to minimise the consequences of the crash, for those inside it, and for them, standing on that Citadel level.  
  
Hasty and inadequate as it was, their plan actually mostly worked. The shuttle crashed onto the floor with a deafening sound, sliding on the ground but without the neck breaking speed that it would have otherwise have without their interference.  
  
Bits and pieces of the shiny floor tiles, dirt and plants from decorative gardens, and broken glass were projected to all sides, but Leah's barrier stopped them from crashing into the screaming people.  
  
Then the shuttle finally stopped.  
  
There was silence for a moment, everyone stopping and looking at the crashed shuttle with some degree of shock. It had all happened so fast.  
  
Leah and Scott let their biotics dissipate, but they weren’t soldiers just for show. Without missing a beat, they both ran towards the vehicle. If it had been smoking as it crashed from the sky, it was much worse now. They had to take the people inside of it out as fast as possible. It looked ready to explode.  
  
Both twins reached an opposite door from the shuttle and opened at the same time. There was a woman and a child inside it, and Leah didn’t even slow down in her movements. Hands expertly disengaging the safety belt around the young boy, she ignored the blood on his forehead and his dazed expression and wrapped her arms around him, taking him out of the shuttle.  
  
Then she let instinct take over, and her arms tightened around the boy as she did a biotic charge away from the shuttle. She was a good 90 feet away from the crash site in a blink of an eye, right next to the people looking with wide eyes at what was happening.  
  
She’d landed crouched down protectively around the kid, so she let go of him slowly. He was clearly in shock, tense in her arms, but he was safe now and that was all that mattered.  
  
She helped him sit down gently, and as she straightened up again, she raised her head and her eyes fell immediately on another’s.  
  
Familiar green eyes.  
  
**_BOOM!_**  
  
There was an explosion. Glasses broke around them and people screamed.  
  
Horror filled her and she turned right away, “Scott!” she yelled and biotic charged next to the shuttle in a split second.  
  
The place was filled with dark smoke, and for a terrible second, heart pounding loudly in her ears, she couldn’t see her brother anywhere. Then someone coughed and when she turned, her brother was right there, a barrier disappearing from around his and the woman’s skin.  
  
Safe and sound.  
  
“Holy shit, Scott! Are you alright?” She asked, hand over her heart, feeling the sweet relief warming her veins once again.  
  
He coughed again and got up, arms still protectively around the woman’s unconscious form, “Fine and dandy. Did you know biotic barriers don’t protect you from smoke inhalation?” He asked conversationally as he coughed and grimaced.  
  
Whatever her retort would have been, it was cut off as he swayed. She approached them hurriedly, grabbing her brother’s arm, “Scott?”  
  
“Let’s” - another cough, though less strong - “get out of here. Help me out.”  
  
The next moments were a flurry of movement.  
  
Leah and Scott managed to carry the still unconscious woman away from the shuttle. Already the place was being filled with C-Sec and medical teams, so they left both woman and child in their care, answering questions from the Citadel Security Services about what had happened.  
  
Both Ryders ended up following the wounded to the Huerta Memorial since that’s where they were going anyway. The woman was okay, but the medics wanted to check if she had any internal injuries. The child, her son, was also fine despite all the blood he had had on his face before. He actually only had a small cut on his forehead, with was at odds with the amount of blood that had come out of it, but it was a normal occurrence with head wounds.  
  
Scott was also fine, he was just a man-baby and couldn’t handle a little bit of smoke. She actually blamed his job - being constantly closed off in a controlled environment and away from the elements, turned people into hothouse flowers. Very delicate. Which was cool because now she got to make fun of him.  
  
However, her ribbing and his consequent glare, were interrupted.  
  
“Hey, you two, any injuries?” A strangely familiar gravelly voice asked from behind them.  
  
Both of them turned, only to come face to face with a very handsome man in a doctor’s white coat.  
  
“Dr. Harry Carlyle,” she blurted with surprise, blinking at him. She’d seen him earlier, just for a moment, now that she thought about it…hadn’t she?  
  
_Still as hot as a drive core, I see_. Thankfully she managed not to blurt _that_ particular thought. However true it was.  
  
He gave her a small smile and…was that a twinkle in his eyes? “Corporal Leah Ryder,” he said back at her, with a nod of his head.  
  
She was a little surprised that he remembered her name, but then again he knew her father. He’d likely remember her last name at least. “Nice to see you again,” she said, a little lost for words. Then she blinked, remembering his question, “And yeah, no injuries, we’re fine, thanks.”  
  
“No prophecies of pain this time, then?” Oh there was definitely a twinkle in his eyes now.  
  
She snorted and sent him a look. She wanted it to be a glare but her lips kept twitching up in an amused smile. She'd never been very good at pretending to be mad at someone. “Thankfully no.”  
  
Scott was looking at them with some curiosity, blue eyes going from one to another, “You two know each other?”  
  
Leah nodded, “Dr. Carlyle worked with dad. We met once, after slavers attacked my excavation.” She remembered it all too well, for many different reasons, one of them being the snarky doctor standing before her. And from his comment and the little twitch of his lips, the doctor remembered it well too.  
  
Sadly, her brother also had a sharp memory, but for embarrassing things, damn him, “Oh, from when you dislocated your shoulder because you failed at charging, like an idiot?” A shit-eating grin grew on his face as he spoke. It her fault for telling him about it in the first place.  
  
She rolled her eyes, feeling her cheeks warm in result of the memory _and_ the green eyes currently looking at her with amusement. “Yesss,” she admitted grudgingly, “and I’m never telling you anything ever again.”  
  
Scott laughed, but the good doctor had the decency of not commenting. He turned his gaze to her brother, “So you’re the other half of the Ryder twins set?” Her father must have mentioned she had a twin when he was telling him and _all his team_ all about her childhood adventures. Oh joy.  
  
Her brother gave him a friendly smile and reached his hand towards the doctor, “That I am. Scott Ryder, the cool twin.”  
  
Leah stifled a groan. He was so embarrassing sometimes. “Whatever, junior,” she said under her breath. He, obviously, totally ignored her.  
  
“Harry Carlyle,” the doctor greeted with a chuckle, as he shook her brother’s hand firmly, “Nice to meet you.” Then he looked at both of them, “I saw what you guys did back there. Nicely done. If it weren’t for your actions, it could have been a lot worse.”  
  
“We’re soldiers,” Scott answered with a shrug, “Helping people is what we’re meant to do.”  
  
Carlyle nodded. As a doctor, he more than likely shared the feeling, but fixed them with a curious look nonetheless, “How did you know what to do? That seemed almost like a natural reaction, like you’d done it a thousand times.”  
  
The Ryder twins blinked, and met each other’s eyes for a moment before looking at the doctor again.  
  
“No idea.”  
  
“Of course we haven’t done that before.”  
  
“Yeah, how often do you think shuttles fall from the sky?”  
  
“And it’s not like we could do something like that on purpose.”  
  
“Of course not.”  
  
“Nope.”  
  
“No way.”  
  
There was a moment of silence.  
  
The doctor sent them a completely unconvinced look, “I see.” He said it in such a deadpan tone that it made Leah want to crack a smile, feeling infinitely amused. It was a problem, she was realising.  
  
Carlyle must have caught the twitch of her lips because he sent her a pointed look and raised an eyebrow. She pursed her lips in an effort to not betray the facade and ignored his meaningful glance, crossing her arms and looking away, rapidly searching for another thing to talk about.  
  
Her mother saved the day as Leah spotted her on the other end of the corridor, “Hey Scott, mom’s there.” She gestured towards behind him with her chin.  
  
And as he turned towards where their mother was standing, deep in conversation with another doctor, Leah sneaked a peek towards the doctor again. He was looking towards the corridor as well, so she took the time to admire his profile. He really had such a lovely nose. He looked about the same as she remembered, only he had more grey hairs. It suited him though.  
  
He was definitely older than her, no doubt. Some ten years or more at least, but she honestly didn’t care. Handsome and, more importantly, with a dry wit that could easily go head to head with her sense of humour? He had her attention.  
  
And he was a doctor, which, right now, was important to her, but for different reasons.  
  
“Well that’s our cue.” Scott said, while sending a frankly embarrassing little salute towards the doctor, “Nice you meet you, doc. See you around.”  
  
Carlyle nodded gracefully, “You too, take care.”  
  
“You coming?” Scott asked, looking over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow, when she didn’t immediately followed him. There was another question in his eyes, from the way he threw another curious look between her and the doctor, but that was for later.  
  
“In a sec. Go on,” she said before he nodded and walked towards their mom. She uncrossed her arms and put them in her pockets nonchalantly. Then she turned to the doctor that was looking curiously at her now.  
  
“Something the matter?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.  
  
She realised then what had made his face so striking to her. Apart from everything else, that is.  
  
His eyes. Not their colour in fact, though it was quite pretty, but their catlike shape. It made him look sharp and intelligent, though if he was a doctor, he probably was already, regardless of how he looked. She could almost imagine him dressed in a suit, all proper, like those sexy rich business men that she read about in her secret stash of racy novels.  
  
He was certainly fantasy material, but she was nothing if not down to earth in the things that mattered. (Or was it down to the citadel gravity center, in this case? Something to think about.)  
  
She gave him her best shameless smile, “Harry. Can I call you Harry? Doesn't matter, I'm calling you Harry. Wanna be my new best friend?”  
  
He blinked at her barrage of words, but otherwise didn't react, simply cocking his head to the side. She had to admire how unflappable he was. Must come from being a doctor, she guessed. "Tempting,” he said with a touch of dryness, before throwing her a slightly suspicious look, “But what would that entail exactly?"  
  
"Not getting into a binding friendship deal blindly - smart man," she commented with a dignified nod, before catching his eye again, trying to sound innocent and failing miserably at it, "It would entail…my undying gratitude?"  
  
"Ah.” Now it was his turn to cross his arms, which was a bit distracting to be honest. He definitely worked out. “So you're going to ask me something."  
  
"...yes,” she admitted slowly but was quick to add, “ _But_! I'm going to pay you back."  
  
His eyebrows went up, "Oh?"   
  
It probably sounded bad, didn't it? Oh well. Might as well milk it for what it was. "A sweet, _sweet_ deal, that you shall never _ever_ regret, and will come to think of as a defining moment in your life."  
  
His eyes turned amused, "That's a tall order.”  
  
She sent him a cheeky smile, "Secret restaurant in the Citadel with," and leaning towards him she whispered the rest, " _real_ Earth chicken."  
  
He was quick to respond, "Say no more. What do you need?"  
  
She grinned at him for his answer - real Earth food was always a precious find, especially on the Citadel - and it was amusing to see how quickly he had gotten on board with her ridiculous deal. However, her smile quickly became chagrined as she told him what she wanted, "Get someone to nudge my mother into talking to her family about her disease?"  
  
His expression turned serious, “Ellen Ryder, I presume?”  
  
Leah nodded with a sigh, “The one and only.”  
  
“I’m not actually part of the team that’s following her,” he told her gently.  
  
But she waved him away, “I know, I know. But you work here,” she could see Huerta Memorial’s emblem on his white coat, “so you know the other doctors. And you can talk to them for me.” Her smile fell away, eyes meeting his green ones, trying to make him understand, “She isn’t talking to me or Scott and she has refused company on medical appointments and exams.” She shook her head, sneaking a worried glance towards the other end of the corridor. “We have no idea what is going on because she isn’t talking at all and she basically ordered her doctors not to tell us anything.” She raised one of her hands and rubbed her forehead tiredly, “I know it’s a misguided way to try and protect us if the news aren’t good…but we want to know, so we can help her the best we can,” she said, eyes meeting his once again, pleading.  
  
He contemplated her silently for a moment, "I understand your side, but you know doctors can't make a patient do anything they don't want to."  
  
She nodded, "I know, but if one of her doctors, doesn't matter who, discreetly nudged her into talking to her family, maybe she'd be more receptive to it? We can’t be directly involved because she’ll just retreat like she’d been doing all this time." She shook her head, "We just don't know what to do anymore. We want to help her, but we can't if she doesn't talk to us."  
  
He nodded slowly, "I'll try to talk to my colleagues, but no promises. Though we always recommend that our patients talk with their families about any medical problems, in the end, it will always be your mother’s call."  
  
She sent him a small relieved smile, "That's all I can ask, thank you." Then she fiddled with her omni-tool for a moment, and sent him what she had promised. A swipe of her finger from her omni-tool towards him and it was done. "My part of our friendship deal, the address of one secret restaurant.” She sent him a grave look, “Use it wisely."  
  
He looked at his omni-tool when it pinged with the information received, before looking back at her and chuckling, the skin around his eyes wrinkling, "It's precious knowledge. I will, thank you."  
  
“Thank _you_ , Harry. Really,” she said as her hand caught his wrist and squeezed it quickly in thanks before letting go just as fast again, eyes earnest. Perhaps it was too familiar, but she had decided that she liked him, so that was it.  
  
He didn’t seem to mind, just sending her a smile, eyes twinkling, “I haven’t done my part yet, but you’re welcome. I hope things get better.”  
  
Her smile softened, “So do I.” Then she looked at the other side of the corridor. Her brother and mother were waiting for her, so she turned to the doctor again, “I have to go, but thanks again. Take care!” And with a quick grin at her new best friend, she turned and rushed back towards her family.  
  
“Leah Ariadne Ryder! You didn’t tell me Scott was coming today!” Her mother scolded as she approached them. She and Scott were turning towards Leah, hands over each other’s shoulder. There was a smile on Ellen Ryder’s face, so she wasn’t too worried.  
  
Leah smirked, “I didn’t want to ruin your day, of course.”  
  
Scott threw her a dirty look, and mouthed the word _dick_ at her, which only caused her smirk to widen.  
  
Their mother laughed though, before sending her a look, “Behave.” Then she kissed Scott’s cheek, “Thank you both for the surprise. I missed you children," she told them warmly, the skin around her eyes wrinkling with her smile.  
  
Twin smiles were directed at her. “Right back atcha, mom,” Scott said, dropping a kiss on her cheek as well.  
  
Leah grinned and caught her brother’s eye, “You know what to do, Scotty!”  
  
“Mom Sandwich!” He grinned back.  
  
And amidst laughter, they sandwiched their mom in a tight hug, before each dropping a kiss in each of their mom’s cheeks with a resounding _muah!_ for effect, something that never failed to make their mother giggle.  
  
If there was some worry, an undercurrent of fear, when Leah and Scott’s eyes met amidst the hug, neither of them acknowledged it.  
  
“Let’s go home, then?” Their mom asked.  
  
And so they went.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This is still alive, as am I! My inner writer only lives during non-Summer months - which coincidentally, so do I!
> 
> The Ryder family timeline is a huge mess. They drop a few hints of certain things in-game, and a few more in the codex, but it’s still muddled as hell. I’m trying to fit in things and all, but certain details will be slightly different because they either don’t make sense, or I can’t make heads or tails of it. For example, the Ryder twins only being 22 during the game makes little sense in terms of timeline. They’re both a few years older in my headcanon. In this chapter they’re around 23 (and they’ll be around 26 when they arrive in Andromeda, give or take a few centuries ;D)  
> That means this bit is around the time when they know their mother is sick, but they don’t know what the disease is yet, much less that it’s terminal. Alec was already working on SAM and trying to pitch it to the Alliance (though he was also already brainstorming about how to help Ellen - I think they both suspected it was bad from the beginning).
> 
> Also, this had very little Harry and was a bit more centered in Leah, but I couldn’t help touching on her story, and write some banter with Scott as well :D (I love having siblings in games!) There will be more Harry in the future ;)  
> (and yeah, the deal was totally an excuse, but things will be more natural from now on)
> 
> And for the record, my faceclaim for Leah is Daisy Ridley (but with grey eyes, some freckles and thicker eyebrows) and my faceclaim for Harry is David Gandy (but with green eyes, more grey hairs, and a touch of Middle East, features-wise). Scott is the canon Scott :)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Until next time!


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